History is liberation

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:03]In the name of my ancestors, I rebuke [music] everything I'm about to say.

[00:00:08]I say, a lot of people imagine COINTELPRO like simple government surveillance. Like the FBI was just quietly keeping an eye on [music] activists during the Civil Rights Movement.

[00:00:19]That is not what happened.

[00:00:21]COINTELPRO was an FBI program [music] designed to infiltrate, [singing] disrupt, sabotage, and destroy [music] political movements the government considered dangerous. And black liberation is the biggest [music] threat to American democracy. The FBI monitored Martin Luther King Jr., infiltrated the NOI, and killed Malcolm X. The Black Panther [music] Party was primarily dismantled from programs and FBI operatives. Fred Hampton was one of the most powerful organizers in American history, [music] and he was killed during a 1969 raid tied directly to FBI intelligence operatives, >> [music] >> right next to his 8-month pregnant fiance, Akua'na Njeri. He was 21. I need you to hear me and understand this clear. The government wasn't reacting to violence. [music] These groups were feeding children, teaching political education, building coalitions, organizing communities, creating independent black political power outside of state control. That's what made them dangerous to the system, because once people start organizing successfully, power starts getting nervous, especially when poor communities begin realizing their conditions are connected. That's why COINTELPRO still matters [music] today.

[00:01:27]It's not just history, it's a warning, because systems that feel threatened by organized communities will often call those communities dangerous long before they call them equal.

[00:01:36]Study their programs, read beyond the textbooks, [music] and learn how power responds when communities begin organizing independently. History ain't past tense.

[00:01:45]>> [music] >> It's liberation, and has always been treated like a threat before it's recognized as justice. [music]